By Brian Rush

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Reclaiming Socialism, or: Economic Democracy (Recovering a Stolen Word) Imagine getting up in the morning and going to work for a company that, just by virtue of the fact that you work for it, you own part of. Imagine that the company’s president and other officers have to stand for election every year or two years, and you and all the other employees of the company vote them in or out. Imagine getting an accounting on a quarterly basis of the company’s profitability and receiving a payout of your share of those profits – your due as a worker-owner.

Imagine that you get tired of working for the company you own part of and decide to strike out on your own. Imagine that there are on-line services readily available where your skills demand high pay from independent clients, so that being self-employed and entirely your own boss is a matter only of doing the work.Or let’s say that you and a number of friends have an idea for a new business. Imagine a non-profit organization or perhaps a government agency set up just for that purpose, ready to provide you and your friends a low-interest loan, free advice, and lots of other assistance so you can do that – as long as your new business is a workers’ cooperative.

Imagine a world in which nobody is obscenely rich and nobody is poor, and the average person makes about double – maybe triple – what most people make today.

I can imagine that easily enough. Can you?Would you like to live in a world like that?

I sure would. We’re ready for it. We just have to believe it and reach for it, and reclaim the word that stands for it.

That word is “socialism.”

It’s being misused today to describe something it’s not, a world of giant bureaucracies, stagnant economies, and secret police. That’s not what it means. It means a world in which ordinary people – probably people like you – own the businesses that provide your livelihood, instead of the economy being owned by a few hogs on Wall Street who see you as their peon.

That’s what socialism is about.

It’s about finally freeing ourselves from the vestiges of the old aristocracy, preserved without the titles in high-rise offices and gated communities.

It’s about democracy in the workplace, not just the polling-place.

It’s about ending the lie that we live in an era of austerity. We don’t. We live in an era of abundance, with technology capable of producing more wealth than ever before – but we also live in an era when a small, powerful, greedy elite see that wealth as belonging to them instead of to all of us, and that’s the reason so many people today are struggling.

The world is rightfully ours, but like the word “socialism” it’s been stolen from us.

This book is about taking it back.

More by Brian Rush

Brian Rush Michael Cambridge is the hereditary leader of a religious order of assassins. He wants out, but the order will kill him if he leaves.

The Scourge of God was founded in the 14th century to kill the Droon, men and women that the order’s founder believed were devils in human form. Devoutly Christian, intensely conservative and secretive, willing to kill to preserve Christendom, the Scourge is fanatical and deadly. Mike tried once to escape his destiny, but the order forced him to assume his father’s position as its leader – under threat of death if he refused.

But the Droon themselves may hold the key to his freedom. For Mike, interrogating a Droon according to the rules of an old agreement between them and the Scourge of God, discovers that they are not devils after all, but aliens from another world, their spirits incarnate in human form after their home planet was destroyed in a great interstellar war. Cruel, deceitful, and monstrous, the Droon are reborn in a new human body each time one of them dies, with all their memories intact. They have chosen Earth as their refuge, and mean to transform it into a world under their total domination, with the rest of humanity reduced to their slaves and pain-toys.

Yet they are not unopposed. Their enemies, the Andol, are also on Earth in human form. Down the centuries the Andol have been completely invisible to the Scourge of God, but now their presence has been revealed to Mike Cambridge by the Droon. Desperate for a way to be free, Mike sets out to find the Andol, hoping that they can help him against both the Droon and his own hereditary doom. Thus he begins a long, dangerous quest. Mike is pursued by deadly alien killers. He is confused by his passion for Amanda, the beautiful and charismatic Andol leader, uncertain of her motives and her manipulative ways, but vulnerable to the dictates of his heart. The danger grows as well from his own order, which has become increasingly suspicious of Mike’s heretical thoughts and actions.

Can Mike escape from his bondage to the Scourge of God before the order or the Droon bring his life to an end? If he does, will he truly be free, or will he find himself wrapped around Amanda’s pretty finger? Who will control his destiny – and that of the human race?

Brian Rush Imagine getting up in the morning and going to work for a company that, just by virtue of the fact that you work for it, you own part of. Imagine that the company’s president and other officers have to stand for election every year or two years, and you and all the other employees of the company vote them in or out. Imagine getting an accounting on a quarterly basis of the company’s profitability and receiving a payout of your share of those profits – your due as a worker-owner.

Imagine that you get tired of working for the company you own part of and decide to strike out on your own. Imagine that there are on-line services readily available where your skills demand high pay from independent clients, so that being self-employed and entirely your own boss is a matter only of doing the work.Or let’s say that you and a number of friends have an idea for a new business. Imagine a non-profit organization or perhaps a government agency set up just for that purpose, ready to provide you and your friends a low-interest loan, free advice, and lots of other assistance so you can do that – as long as your new business is a workers’ cooperative.

Imagine a world in which nobody is obscenely rich and nobody is poor, and the average person makes about double – maybe triple – what most people make today.

I can imagine that easily enough. Can you?Would you like to live in a world like that?

I sure would. We’re ready for it. We just have to believe it and reach for it, and reclaim the word that stands for it.

That word is “socialism.”

It’s being misused today to describe something it’s not, a world of giant bureaucracies, stagnant economies, and secret police. That’s not what it means. It means a world in which ordinary people – probably people like you – own the businesses that provide your livelihood, instead of the economy being owned by a few hogs on Wall Street who see you as their peon.

That’s what socialism is about.

It’s about finally freeing ourselves from the vestiges of the old aristocracy, preserved without the titles in high-rise offices and gated communities.

It’s about democracy in the workplace, not just the polling-place.

It’s about ending the lie that we live in an era of austerity. We don’t. We live in an era of abundance, with technology capable of producing more wealth than ever before – but we also live in an era when a small, powerful, greedy elite see that wealth as belonging to them instead of to all of us, and that’s the reason so many people today are struggling.

The world is rightfully ours, but like the word “socialism” it’s been stolen from us.

This book is about taking it back.

Brian Rush A fantasy story set in the modern world. Two secret orders of powerful magicians locked in bitter rivalry. Two ex-lovers. She's in one order. He's in the other. As the former leaders of the two orders join forces to destroy them both, Karla and Correl must work together to stop them, and find their feelings for each other, still strong, complicate everything.

Brian Rush Star Mages Book 2. The Morrigan is reborn as Angée, daughter of Dolphin and Falcon, called the Child of Paradox in a mysterious prophecy. The Sword (formerly the Third Key) disturbs the dreams of the Star Mages and stirs them to rebellion. Even Falcon is not immune, and must make a fateful choice between the Star and the Sword. But the final choice between danger and despair lies with Angée.

Brian Rush Robin Hood in a dystopian science-fiction future. Robert Hunter, incredibly rich son of a robotics magnate, takes on the role of Robin Hood as his father and grandfather did before him to free the people from oppression. The Hooded Man lives again, armed with high-tech weapons and hacking skills in place of a longbow, but always the hero of the common people. First of a series.

In this story, we meet Robert and his father and grandfather, who played the role of Robin before him, as well as John, Mary, and Alan, three of his partners in crime. We learn how the oppressive society where he lives came to be and how it is upheld by robot soldiers whose programming is a carefully-guarded secret. Robert is given a clue to unveiling that secret, which could let him overthrow the system and restore freedom to the people. But is it a trap? And even if it is, can he hope to spring the trap, take the bait, and survive? A great temptation and a real challenge for the Hooded Man.

Brian Rush Part 3 of The Star Mages. A hundred years have passed since the Sword was banished, and now the Star's plan is complete. Angée's door is opened and conflict between Star and Sword is fought to its finish. Once more caught on the pivot between love and power, Angée must again make a terrible sacrifice in order to save everything she holds most dear.

Brian Rush Long ago in the legendary time, at the very dawn of civilized days, the Old Gods sang the Green Stone Towers into being as bridges between two worlds. By means of the Towers the workers of magic, descended of the gods, escaped the wrath of the rest of mankind. Into the land of Faerie the mages fled, the gods followed, and the doors of the Towers were sealed behind them. In the ages after, the makers of magic changed into the immortal faerie-folk. Now once in a while a faerie will brave the Green Stone Towers and visit the world they left behind, often for love’s sake, if a mortal takes their fancy.Johnny Silverbell is the secret son of a mortal woman and a man of the faerie-folk, blessed with gifts of music and magic, love-gifts of a red-haired faerie-girl whose name he never learned. He yearns to open the Tower’s door and climb the stair to Faerie where he hopes to find his love. But this can only be when he has lost everything dear to him in the mortal world and he flees from certain death.Meanwhile, unknown to Johnny, his faerie-girl lives under a doom of prophecy: to be the unwilling bride of the dark god Malatant, Lord of Shadow, and bring him victory in his ages-long struggle with the gods of light.

Brian Rush A fantasy story set in the modern world. Two secret orders of powerful magicians. Two ex-lovers. One order is filled with idealistic zeal and a vision of utopia. He's in that one. The other is consumed with selfish ambition. She's in it. Follow the mystical, magical journey through layers of hidden plots and sorcerous intrigue, in which nothing is ever what it seems at first glance.

Contains the full text of The Stairway to Nowhere, The Child of Paradox, and The Golden Game.

Brian Rush The Kingdom of Grandlock heaves with revolution. The nobility have oppressed the people for generations, but new advances in technology are enabling them to drive more and more people into unemployed misery, at the same time as radical ideas spread among the populace: ideas like democracy and popular rule. Liberty is only a revolt away – but magic threatens to subvert it and fasten new and crueler chains on the people even as they cast off their old ones.

An evil priestess of the Lord of Shadow has come from the world of faerie by way of the Green Stone Tower and built a secret cult dedicated to chaos and ruin. Her agents infiltrate the democracy movement and may replace the king with a tyrant who will enslave the people in the name of liberty, using sorcery to bind them to his power.

And the only thing that can stand against him and his evil mistress is a young woman barely out of her teens: the daughter of a goddess and a powerful sorceress herself.

Here are some of the characters that you will meet in Goddess-Born.

Sonia – the goddess-born daughter of the Lady of Light and the Lord of Shadow, fostered with a merchant family, she is thrown into her country’s struggle for liberty by events beyond her control, and must confront the tyrant who would enslave it and the evil priestess who has betrayed her divine father.

Malcolm – goddess-born like Sonia, Malcolm is the son of Johnny the Singer, the Lord of Art, and Shavana the Mother of Life. He was fostered with a noble family and is the heir of wealth, privilege, and power, but his first passion is art, his second is Sonia, and his third is the magic that burns in his blood.

Gilusa – a priestess of Malatant Lord of Shadow, Gilusa was sent to this world to promote the dark god’s interests, but she lusts for power, chaos, and ruin in ways that her god does not favor. Burning with resentment for her childhood of slavery, she aims at revenge on the whole world.

Anne – the former lover of Johnny the Singer, gifted by that god with eloquence and a powerful pen, she is a noblewoman who favors the liberty of the people. In secret, she publishes pamphlets and newspaper articles that stir the masses to revolt, but faces great danger when the tyrant Edwin sees her as a threat to his rule.

Tranis – a former devotee of Malatant from the world of faerie, this great warrior is now a leader among the People of Light, sworn to the service of the goddess Illowan. His goddess sends him through the Green Stone Tower on a mission he barely understands, and into the web of Gilusa’s plots.

Edwin – a working-class man with great magical talent, Edwin becomes a follower of Gilusa and her right hand in the world. He is the poison within the democratic movement and the tyrant who would enslave the people in the name of freedom.

Luisa – the sixteen-year-old heir to the throne of Grandlock, she is caught up in the whirlwind of revolution and propelled to a fate she could never have imagined.

General Nathaniel Broadleaf – tasked with defending the nation against attack by the vast forces of a foreign foe, this brilliant military man may soon face an even harder job: to save his country from the tyrant who enslaves it.

Goddess-Born is the second of a projected four books in the Tale of Two Worlds series; however, it is an independent story and it and the first volume, The Green Stone Tower, can be read in either order. The same will be true of The People of the Sea and Light and Shadow, to be published in 2013.

Brian Rush Claire's magic is so powerful it makes her mentally ill. Suffering symptoms of bipolar disorder caused by her undeveloped talent, she escapes a Droon murder squad and reluctantly seeks training from the Andol. But the enemy follows and launches a plot to destroy the Andol stronghold and kill everyone in it, including Claire.

Meanwhile, the war between the Droon and the Andol is heating up, as the Andol seek human allies with magical talent, while the Droon hunt human magicians down and kill them. It's a race between the Andol rescue operations and the Droon murder squads. Who will win the race? Can Claire recover her sanity and develop her powers in time to save herself, her friends, and the Andol from certain death?﻿

Brian Rush When Gordon the bio-mage and the other Illuminated – magicians blessed with familiar spirits that give them remarkable powers – hear rumors that Shadow is on his way, they soon learn that the adept of Death, supposedly mythical, really exists. He’s undead, invincible, and ruthless. He kills Illuminated. Nothing can stop him, and now it seems that Gordon is his chosen target.

Gordon’s familiar spirit knows how he can survive, but she’s left him alone to discover it for himself as a test. If Gordon can’t find the answer in a few days, he’s sure to die.